The Penguins have finalized a seven-year contract with goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and have reached agreements to obtain two free-agent wingers.

The Fleury deal is believed to be worth $35 million, which translates to an annual salary-cap hit of $5 million.

The year-by-year breakdown of his salary is not yet known.

Getting the deal done means the Penguins and Fleury will not have to go to salary arbitration, which the team filed for last month to prevent Fleury from testing the open market this week as a restricted free agent.

Also today, the Penguins have agreed to one-year contracts with free-agent wingers Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko, both of whom spent last season with the New York Islanders.

Satan's is worth $3.5 million, Fedotenko's is worth $2.5 million.

Satan has outstanding goal-scoring ability but has been criticized for being a no-show in some games.

He is coming off one of his least productive seasons, with just 16 goals and 25 assists in 80 games on Long Island.

Fedotenko had 16 goals and 17 assists in 67 games in 2007-08.

The Penguins are believed to have focused on those two after learning they would not be able to sign ex-Penguin Markus Naslund.
More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
First published on July 3, 2008 at 1:31 pm

The team dresses in black and gold, has a long waiting list for season tickets and has the highest television ratings of any team in the league. It also is No. 1 league-wide in merchandise sales and has a rabid fan base that lives and dies with the team's every move.

It's not the Steelers we're talking about. It's the Penguins, the other Pittsburgh franchise that has a Steelers-like following.

The Penguins have never been more popular, and it is being reflected in the club's climbing ticket sales. The Penguins have sold out a club-record 67 consecutive games, including regular season and playoffs, dating to the 2006-07 season. Last season, the Penguins sold out all 41 regular-season home games for the first time in franchise history, and they are well on their way to duplicating that feat.

The Penguins have sold out 10 games on the 2008-09 schedule and a limited number of tickets remain for the other 30.

At no other time in the Penguins' 42-year history has the club enjoyed such success at the box office.

When the Stanley Cup teams of the early 1990s first captured the hearts of Pittsburghers, fans flocked to Civic Arena. But even championships and star power galore couldn't guarantee sellout crowds.

The previous record for sellouts in a season was 34, set in 1988-89 and tied the following season in 1989-90. That was one year before the Mario Lemieux-led Penguins raised the Stanley Cup for the first time.

Sidney Crosby and Co. haven't hoisted Lord Stanley's trophy yet, but they have won the hearts of the fan base.

"Pittsburgh traditionally was and still is a football town," Penguins president David Morehouse said. "What has changed is now Pittsburgh is also a hockey town. Mario was responsible for the emergence of hockey as part of our cultural fabric. That was the foundation. It established hockey in Western Pennsylvania. When Sidney and [Evgeni] Malkin and [Jordan] Staal and all these great players came in, that built on the foundation that was already there.

"We are a full-fledged hockey town now, as good as any other city in the country. I would put us up against Detroit, Minneapolis, Boston, New York. We're as strong as any of them. Our numbers bear that out."

The Penguins have a season-ticket waiting list of more than 2,500 people. Those 2,500 people have placed a $200 deposit on purchasing future season-ticket plans. To put that number into perspective, consider that the team didn't even have a season-ticket waiting list until last season.

The Penguins could have sold out Mellon Arena strictly through season-ticket sales this year, but they capped season packages at 14,000 in order to keep a broader fan base involved in ticket buying.

"The philosophy here is that selling only season tickets is not the best long-term strategy," Penguins vice president Tom McMillan said. "We wanted to have more tickets available to a wider fan base. We want to build a broader fan base. Some people just can't get to 40 home games or afford season tickets."

Those average-Joe fans responded in resounding fashion when the Penguins put those single-game tickets on sale Sept. 20. Within 90 minutes, 20,000 tickets had been sold.

It wasn't all that long ago that the Penguins were struggling to stay in business. Mellon Arena had bigger crowds for the circus a few years back. In 2003-04, one season before the NHL lockout when the Penguins were the worst team in the league, the average attendance was 11,877. Only 5,500 people had season tickets, and there was one sellout.

Now it's the hottest ticket in town.

"This team is reflective of what Pittsburghers like in their sports teams," Morehouse said. "They have a tremendous drive. Take Game 5 [of the Stanley Cup finals]. If you're looking for ways to market a team ... That team showed as much drive as any team during the Stanley Cup years.

"And we have good kids. Pittsburghers are good at recognizing character. You can't create what our kids have. Sidney Crosby doesn't have to go to people's houses to deliver season tickets. But he likes doing it. They do a lot in the community that people appreciate. The character they possess translates very well in Pittsburgh."

For those fans hoping to snatch up some of the precious remaining tickets, they can be purchased for between $50 and $115 by contacting the Penguins' ticket office or visiting any Ticketmaster location. On their Web site, the Penguins offer a ticket-exchange program, where fans can purchase tickets from season-ticket holders.

Fans also can visit Web sites such as stubhub.com, where people sell their tickets, often for double and triple their face value.

Despite the rough economic times, when plenty of people are having a hard time paying a mortgage, let alone finding money for sports entertainment, the march of the Penguins continues at a record pace.

"We're amazed and humbled by it," Morehouse said. "That's why we're putting the best product on the ice that we can."
Ray Fittipaldo can be reached at rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1230.

Crosby reaches 3 milestones in 4-1 victory against Toronto
Sunday, October 19, 2008
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Sidney Crosby, left, is congratulated by teammate Evgeni Malkin after scoring his 100th career goal in the third period last night at Mellon Arena.

Sidney Crosby had four points in the Penguins' first five games.

Nice pace for your average mortal in the National Hockey League.

Nowhere near what the guy many regard as the finest player in the world expects from himself.

Crosby, though, went a long way toward making up his offensive shortfall last night, scoring one goal -- his first of the season and 100th in the NHL -- and setting up three others in the Penguins' 4-1 victory against Toronto at Mellon Arena.

"I don't expect four-point nights, but I definitely wanted to score [in previous games]," Crosby said. "I thought I was doing some good things, and the puck just wasn't going in."

It did last night on his only shot of the game, and Crosby helped to make three other goals possible. Evgeni Malkin, his new/old linemate, matched Crosby's point total by assisting on all four goals.

Throw in the goal linemate Pascal Dupuis contributed, and the reconfigured No. 1 line accounted for nine points, enough to qualify coach Michel Therrien's personnel moves a day earlier as an unabashed success.

"They had a great game, that line," Therrien said. "They responded exactly the way I was expecting."

In addition to his 100th goal, Crosby recorded his 200th assist and 300th point. Coincidentally enough, Malkin's assist on Crosby's goal was his 200th point.

And while it's unlikely that they'll still be linemates when the next batch of milestones comes along, Crosby and Malkin, along with Dupuis, certainly satisfied the mandate Therrien gave them Friday.

"Mike said, 'Score. I need wins. Score,'" Malkin said.

The victory was the first in regulation this season for the Penguins (3-2-1), and completed a 2-1-1 homestand. They will play in Boston tomorrow and are on the road for five of their next six games.

Fox Chapel native Bill Thomas played his first game at Mellon Arena as a member of the Penguins.

He work on the fourth line and logged four minutes, 53 seconds of ice time, 2:06 of it killing penalties.

"It was incredible," he said.

The one snag: Thomas didn't find out he was in the lineup until he was ready to go out for the pregame warmup, and thus didn't have a chance to notify friends and family that he was playing. Tough break, considering that his parents, who had come to the previous three games, gave their tickets to friends last night.

"But I know they watched," Thomas said.

If so, his parents saw Nik Antropov give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 14:25 of the opening period as he rapped a rebound past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. It proved to be the only one of 27 Toronto shots that eluded Fleury.

"Fleury was sharp," Therrien said.

Dupuis countered Antropov's goal at 15:16, when a Crosby centering pass caromed to him in front of the net, and he threw a backhander behind Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph.

The Penguins moved in front to stay a few minutes later, as Miroslav Satan, stationed near the front edge of the crease, steered in a Crosby feed from the right side during a power play at 7:55.

It was his third of the season and second in the past two games, another encouraging sign for the Penguins' offense.

"He's always in a good position to score goals," Therrien said.

Crosby's assist on Satan's goal was his 300th point, and he hit another milestone at 12:15 of the third when, from behind the goal line, he banked a backhand centering pass off Toronto's Mikhail Grabovski, who was sliding into the Maple Leafs' net when the puck caromed off him.

"Sometimes, you need a lucky one like that," Crosby said. "It was definitely welcome."

So was Petr Sykora's first of the season at 13:36, as he steered a Crosby pass by Joseph to close out the scoring and help Crosby to double his point total for the season in a single night.

The Pens have quit on Therrian....tonights game againts the Rangers is proof.

Therrian has always been and always will be, a complete ass clown.

I agree the team quit on therrian. I figured it would be a matter of time before the team outgrew him. He was good to get the team some structure and discipline. But now there's too much talent to have the team play like this.

The team didn't like Esposito's work ethic or attitude. So they moved him, and got the the SCF's. I don't have a problem with it.

but you should, you lost a roster player, a prospect, and a pick, and got nothing out of it.

then you let your secondary scoring and heart leave via free agency.

on a team that lacks depth, has no secondary scoring, and has nothing waiting in the wings to help fill the void, you guys have turned into the tampa bay lightning sooner then most of us expected, but hey at least you have cindy malkin and flower signed long term, for your sake i hope you didnt give them no trade clauses

but you should, you lost a roster player, a prospect, and a pick, and got nothing out of it.

then you let your secondary scoring and heart leave via free agency.

on a team that lacks depth, has no secondary scoring, and has nothing waiting in the wings to help fill the void, you guys have turned into the tampa bay lightning sooner then most of us expected, but hey at least you have cindy malkin and flower signed long term, for your sake i hope you didnt give them no trade clauses

They got to the SCF's. That's what they got out of it. They've got talent, but far be it from me to explain to you again how you are always wrong. Plus, with prospects - nothing is ever "proven". If they won the Cup, it would have been worth it. To make that move to put the pens there, was worth it IMO.

One thing with the pens, is they got D talent that can be moved and gonchar's $5mil/yr is soon up.

getting there means nothing, hell the flyers have got there a few times, havent won it in forever, maybe its different being a pens fan, maybe your expectations are lower after sucking for so long, but just getting there isnt good enough for me.

getting there means nothing, hell the flyers have got there a few times, havent won it in forever, maybe its different being a pens fan, maybe your expectations are lower after sucking for so long, but just getting there isnt good enough for me.

Well, i guess destroying the flyers in the playoffs just to hear you flap your vagina gums was worth it enough.

esposito looked good for the canadian world juniors gold medal team, your rental of hossa looks worse now then it did at the time, and at the time i thought it looked pretty bad.

Everyone knew Esposito had lots and lots of potential, just that he lacked consistency. The Pens knew they were taking on a project, and everyone's take on his attitude problem has been blown out of proportion as well.

I think GM Shero should be on the hot seat more than anyone else in that organization. He acquired Satan, let Hossa walk, signing Mark Eaton, Sydor down the list we go.

On the other hand keep him, he has benefited the Kings organization by passing on Moller and JMFJ.